The latest Gallup poll has Obama up 11 points over John McCain. Many pundits are saying that now that he’s broken the 50% mark, that it’s all but a done deal…our next president has been chosen. The trend of the line certainly can’t be encouraging to the Palin-McCain campaign, who has amped up their rhetoric in tying Barack Obama to 60′s era domestic terrorist William Ayers.
The interesting thing about this character-questioning approach is that it started before the debate on Tuesday (which was overwhelmingly called for Obama, despite being John McCain’s choice of venue), yet McCain didn’t mention it once in the Town Hall Meeting. This is surprising since it’s all we are hearing from the Palin-McCain stump.
Despite McCain’s claims that he would run a respectful, clean campaign, those around him felt a different approach would be more successful. The bottom line is that on issues, the Palin-McCain ticket is getting crushed. It may be somewhat unfair to attribute the financial meltdown to solely John McCain, but the Republican principles of deregulation have certainly contributed to the mess we are in. Now, you could certainly place blame on the other end of the spectrum, to Congressional Democrats who leaned on financial institutions to write riskier loans and mortgages so more people could afford houses. It’s nice in principle, but with the pop of the housing bubble, that turned out to be a pretty bad practice.
Ultimately, one major reason that I’m voting for Barack Obama is that now that both campaigns have “gone negative”, the stark difference is that while the Palin-McCain campaign relies on merely asking questions and lobbing accusations, Obama’s ads show the stark contrasts in policy, not merely relying on sunny music over the approval of message, but an actual political pitch.
The reason I am not certain this election is just over yet (although FiveThirtyEight.com has Obama winning almost 350 Electoral College votes), is that I’m not convinced we’ve seen the Palin-McCain campaign go nuclear. I’m not sure what that might involve, but I’m hoping it doesn’t happen – not because I’m convinced that it will work, but because I believe that John McCain is an honorable man and I’d like to see the country come together after this election, rather than being unbelievably divided. Only 25 days left.
Hmm I don’t really pay attention to the ads but even I noticed the anti-Obama stuff heating up. I certainly hope his camp does not “go nuclear” as it could be damaging not only to this election but politics in the following years.
The single best thing about this year is the conundrum for small minded folks. Vote either way and there will be a precedent for non male white guys to serve at the highest levels of the government.
Before we make a choice we may regret for the next four years, the accusations against Barack Obama should be carefully considered, as they are here.
Shane:
Couldn’t agree more, and unfortunately I think the Rep. party is amping up there negative attacks, even though a “gentlemen’s race” was called for. And it’s not that I fear that the attacks will harm the Obama campaign, but instead it will put a bitter taste in people from both parties’ mouths. I know that I am done listening to the finger pointing and the negative and disrespectful words.